The processing of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) to manufacture spheres or irregular shape particles that would be suspended in an aqueous fluid carrier, such as 0.9% Sodium Chloride (Saline), requires the PVA material to undergo a crosslink process to change its inherent water solubility property.
Typical crosslink processes for PVA, not only affect the water solubility of the PVA, but also the material's physical properties such as flexibility, compressibility, softness, fluid absorption capabilities, and other physical properties which may be desired in the final PVA product. In order to avoid, minimize, or control some of these physical property changes on PVA spheres and/or particles, the methods of the present invention allow cross-linking of the PVA polymer to make the PVA insoluble in water or other fluid carrier without significant loss or changes to its other inherent physical properties, in particular, the spheres/particle flexibility, compressibility, softness, and fluid absorption capabilities.